A Preliminary Study Translator’s Subjectivity In James Legge’s The She King

As one of the most classic ancient books in the history of Chinese literature,Shi Jing takes up a very important position in both the early cultural exchanges between China and the West,and today’s academic research at home and abroad.It has also been regarded as an important work of translation studies in the English world,and its English translation history can be traced back to the 18th century.In 1871,the English missionary and famous sinologist James Legge（1815-1897）translated his English version the She King,which was included in his Chinese Classics translation series,becoming the first western scholar to systematically study and complete the full translation of Shi Jing,and his 1871 translation also became the earliest complete translation of Shi Jing in the history of foreign translations.This translation played an important role in the history of English translation of Shi Jing,and had an important and far-reaching influence.This thesis focuses on the translation and introduction of 1871 The She King Lessons From The States in Legge’s Chinese Classic and analyzes the uniqueness of the translation combined with the translator’s subjectivity.Since the "cultural turn" has been advocated in translation studies,instead of sticking to language problems,we have tried to probe into deep communication problems such as how text manipulation occurs in cross-cultural translation and introduction.The topic of translator’s subjectivity has been paid more and more attention,and paying attention to translators has become an indispensable part of the study of translation activities.Translator’s subjectivity mainly includes three aspects:translator’s passivity,egoism（that is,purpose）and subjective creativity.First of all,the translator’s passivity can restrain his creativity in the process of translation,because in the process of spreading the translated information,the translation is restrained by the translator’s times and personal experiences,which will more or less mark his translation with the times’ influences.When transmitting to readers,in view of the differences in the language environment and comprehension ability of the readers,the translator can’t completely translate and introduce according to his own ideas and the habits of the source culture,and the translation activities need to meet the expectations of the target readers and fully consider the readers’expectations.Secondly,regarding the translator’s egotism or purpose,in the process of translation,to attain his own translation purpose,the translator will apply various abilities and adopt diversified strategies to translate,so that the target readers can accept and understand the source text.Thirdly,the translator’s creativity is the result of his initiative.The translator’s subjective creativity is based on the translator’s own understanding of the original work,and appropriately deleting and modifying the original work within a reasonable range,so as to better achieve a high degree of integration between the translator and the reader.It can be seen that the research path of translator’s subjectivity can meet with poetry translation to a certain extent,and it can provide a new perspective for poetry translation research.By analyzing Legge’s subjectivity as a translator,this paper will present his linguistic features and translation strategies in the process of translating The She King.The full text is divided into four parts:The first chapter is the prolegomenon,which introduces the She King and its English version,the related research status at home and abroad and the related theories.The second chapter focuses on the specific situation of James Legge and his 1871 translation of the Chinese Classic She King.On the basis of sorting out the factors that influence the translator’s subjectivity,the translator’s passivity,his personal experience and cultural outlook,this chapter further analyzes the structure and characteristics of his 1871 translation of the She King.Besides,by comparing the translations of the She King created by James Legge in three different periods,it is concluded with the reason for choosing to study the Chinese Classic She King in 1871.The third chapter,through the text analysis of the key chapters of 1871 The She King Lessons From The States in Legge’s Chinese Classic,demonstrates from three major aspects:the translation of words,sentence and syntactical structure,specifically analyzes the use of words,the expression of main ideas and the presentation of rhetoric.And through a comparison with the relevant translations like the 1876 verse version,this chapter will also show the changes and reasons of personal subjectivity in the process of Legge’s translation,and summarize Legge’s subjectivity and creativity as a reader and as a translator when he first translated and introduced The She King.Chapter four summarizes the main discoveries of this thesis and puts forward some proposals for the present and future research of poetry translation.Up to now,Legge’s Chinese Classics She King of 1871 edition is still regarded as a classic of English translation because of its originality and accuracy.Studying the translator’s subjectivity in this translation can provide some reference for the current study of Chinese classics translation.